Children's Library Festival Animation Workshop Videos

Jellytree Workshops ran some stop-frame animation sessions at Epsom, Farnham and Woking libraries. These were run as part of our Off The Page Festival for children. The results were great, as you can see below.

Farnham Library animation workshop 

Woking Library animation workshop

Epsom Library animation workshop

Surrey Libraries' Festival for Children

Following on from our Children's Book Award, our Festival for Children begins next Saturday. We have lots of book and story related events running in many of our libraries between 24th May and 12th July. It all starts with a creative writing workshop led by Young People's Laureate for Wales, Martin Daws, at Ashford Library. Other events include authors such as A F Harrold and Jane Lawes talking about their books, storytellers, stop-frame animation, crafts, comic and manga drawing workshops, drumming, multi-lingual rhymetimes and Pebble parties. The full list of events can be found here.

St Matthew's School art workshop

St Matthew's School ran a workshop as a finale to the Children's Book Award.

As you can see the Year 3 and Year 4 pupils created some very individual and imaginative book jackets based on the 'My Funny Family' books and were truly inspired by meeting children's author Chris Higgins.

The children had fun at the Book Award Ceremony

We mentioned that the children from our Champion schools came up on stage and gave presentations during the Children's Book award Ceremony.

This included:

• St John's school performing a Magical Peppers role play.
• South Camberley writing their own adventure for Claude and Sir Bobblysocks and producing book adverts.
• Kingfield  school talking about and showing the art work they had created.
• Loseley field school shared their thoughts about the shortlisted books.
• Weyfield Primary school made a tap dance video.
• St Bartholomew's school read out their reviews and shared their artwork.

These were all fantastic. Well done to all of the children.

Loseley Fields Primary School have allowed us to share their artwork here. It looks like they had a lot of fun being a Champion School.

Surrey Libraries' Children's Book Award Winner Announced

We are so pleased to announce that the winner of Surrey Libraries' 2014 Children's Book Award is Steve Hartley, for his book "Oliver Fibbs: Attack of the Alien Brain".

This year over 900 children sent in their votes for the five shortlisted books. From the reviews on our blog we can see why the children enjoyed Steve's book so much.

Steve was presented with the award at a ceremony held in Woking on 30th April. This was a fun event, with all the shortlisted authors (Atinuke, Alex T Smith, Chris Higgins, Sian Pattenden and Steve Hartley) either taking part or sending messages of thanks. Both Steve and Sian came to the event and entertained us with stories about their lives as writers. All of the Champion schools also came to the ceremony and the children gave fantastic presentations and showed videos they had created about the shortlisted books.

Following the award presentation Steve sent us this message of thanks.

Hi Everyone!

I just wanted to say a huge, mega “thank you” for making Oliver Fibbs Attack of the Alien Brain the 2014 Surrey Libraries Children’s Book of the Year. I am absolutely chuffed to bits!
I really didn’t expect to win because the other books were all so brilliant. But I don’t need to tell you that, do I? You read them all!

Your presentations were fab: tap-dancing, magic, acting, stories, illustrations, TV adverts, and fancy rocks! You all clearly had loads of fun doing activities based on the five short-listed books. That is what awards like this are all about – showing how great stories are. Oliver Fibbs won the 
award, but books were the real winners.

Thank you once again, and KEEP READING!!!

Steve Hartley

(a.k.a. "The Fibster")

Well done to Steve and thank you to all of our five shortlisted authors for writing such great books and being involved with this years Off the Page Surrey Libraries' Children's Book Award. A big thank you to all the schools and Chatterbooks groups involved in championing the award too. The reviews and art you have shared on this blog have been brilliant.

St John`s Year 4 Book reviews and book covers.

Year 4 have drawn the book covers of their favourite stories and have written the following book reviews.

 

 

 

 

BOOK REVIEWS BY YEAR 4

 

The Magical Peppers.

 

This book is about two kids and an uncle named Potty. All of them are magicians. One day they get asked to show the Queen some magic. They had to make the crystal skull disappear. The kids names are Esme and Monty. I like this book because you never know what`s going to happen next.

 

By Daniel aged 9.

 

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The Magical Peppers.

 

The Magical peppers is a very good book. The characters are Potty, Monty and Esme. Uncle Potty gets asked to perform a magic trick in front of the Queen and Potty is very scared. he started practising for the show and he loses the crystal skull. Potty gets arrested and Monty and Esme finds a tunnel.

 

My favourite character is potty because he is funny.

 

By Jessie aged 8.

 

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My Funny Family Gets Bigger.

 

This book is about a 9 and half year old girl called Mattie who has a little brother called Stan. Stan loves reading because he is very good at it but his sister V is not, so she was very jealous of him and got so annoyed with Stan because of all his boasting. So the next day their Nan goes out with V and buys her some new glasses and a new book for her to read with her new glasses and she was very good. At the end of the story their Mum had a baby boy and they wanted to call him Jesus as he was born on Christmas day but in the end the they called him William.

 

My favourite character was V because she was funny.

 

I really liked this book because it explained how they looked and what they felt like.

 

By Rebecca aged 9

 

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Claude In The Spotlight.

 

This book is about when Claude and Sir Bobbly Sock wake up early one morning and start an adventure by going one morning and start an adventure by going to the theatre and performing with a group he met that day.

 

I like this book because Claude has a friend and its a sock, also he was really funny when he said "I need my beauty spot and I feel my hands coming on".

 

I don`t dislike anything about it because it`s fun when Claude does tap dancing.

 

The characters are Claude(the dog), Sir Bobbly sock( the socks), Mr and Mrs Shiny Shoes(the dogs owners), the children(that Claude met that day) and Miss Highkick Spin(the dance teacher).

 

By Lily aged 8

 

 

 

 

 

Steve Hartley visits Champion Schools and Chatterbooks Groups

Steve Hartley, author of Oliver Fibbs: Attack of the Alien Brain, visited 5 schools and 3 Chatterbooks Groups on a 3-day visit to Surrey - and must have been exhausted by the time he got back to Manchester!

Here is Steve with the biggest pair of frilly pink knickers you have ever seen!

Thanks for a brilliant few days, Steve.

My Funny Family Series by St Bartholomew's Year 3 pupils

These reviews were sent in by Year 3 pupils at St Bartholomew's school. Author Chris Higgins also visited their school and they have shared some interesting facts about her writing too.

The first book we read of the “My Funny Family” series was “My Funny Family Gets Bigger”. The main character in the book is a nine year old girl called Mattie. Mattie worries a lot because she has a big family and they are all very different.

Chris Higgins, the author, came to our school to tell us about her books. She gets her inspiration from her own family. Her grandson gave her the title “My Funny Family”. She was going to call it the Butterfields. I like the title because it is much more catchy than the Butterfields.

(by George, Year 3)

The first book I heard and read was “My Funny Family Gets Bigger”. The main character is a nine year old girl called Mattie. Unfortunately, Mattie worries all the time about anything. Whenever she worries her brain gets tangled up “like spaghetti” she says. She also says she has a “funny family” because it’s so big as there are lots of people all in one house.

Chris Higgins, the author, came to pay a visit! We learnt that all the characters are based on members of her family, that she’s written other books  and … how to publish a book! What you do is to get someone called an agent and the agent’s job is to say whether or not they think the book should be published. If they say yes then they take it round to different possible publishers and, if one of them says yes, it’s published.

(by Lizzie, Year 3)

The first book we read was “My Funny Family Gets Bigger”. The main character is called Mattie, a nine year old girl who always worries a lot as she has a big family who are all very different, as well as having a big gap in ages.

Chris Higgins came to our school to tell us about being an author. She has her own room so she has peace and quiet and nothing gets moved. Most of her character’s names are based on artists.

She is going to write three more books, including “My Funny Family Gets funnier” (from inspiration of her grandson).

(by Hugh, Year 3)

Matty, who is the main character, is a big worrier. She worries so much because there is always a lot going on in her house. Her mum says her brain is like spaghetti and it gets all tangled up.

Chris Higgins, the author, came to our school to tell us about her books. She gets her inspiration from her own family. She is going to write “My Funny Family Saves the Day”, “Moves House” and “Gets Funnier” because her family gives her brilliant ideas that she just has to get down on paper.

(by Lucy, Year 3)

The first book I read in this series was “My Funny Family Gets Bigger”. The main character is Mattie. Mattie is a nine and a half year old girl who has a big family. She worries a lot, probably because of this.

Mattie is the main character because the story is told from her point of view. Chris Higgins chose Mattie because she is the same as Mattie.

Chris Higgins, the author, came to visit our school. She told us that she got her inspiration from her own family. She gets ideas for the names from famous artists. Chris is going to write two more books, three if she includes the one her grandson suggested she might write which is “My Funny Family Gets Funnier”. The series was going to be called the Butterfields but her grandson was keener on “My Funny Family”.

(by Poppy, Year 3)

Voting Day at The Dawnay

Today, the children from Hedgehogs Class cast their votes for their favourite book.

St Bartholomew's Book Reviews

As well as enjoying a visit from Chris Higgins, the children at St Bartholomew's school have also reviewed the books. Here are a few of their reviews. They have also been creating story board cartoon strips of the characters in the books in their own adventures and look forward to displaying them in Woking and at their local library.

The Magical Peppers

                                       By Sian Pattenden

Illustrated by Jess Mikhail

It was ever so tricky to choose my favourite book, but the Magical Peppers I really loved. I loved it because Uncle Potty had an amazing idea that he could perform an act of making the museum disappear and he performed it in front of the Queen of England!

 I think Sian Pattenden is an incredible author and I should get more of her books. She has really made me love that book and I hope it is part of a series of them. Her imagination is outstanding and I can see she loves writing.

(Olivia, Namibia Class yr 4)

My Funny Family

My Funny Family Gets Bigger is a great book because it is a hilarious book, full of illustrations which make me laugh!!! It was fantastic to have the author, Chris Higgins, come into our school because she told us more about the My Funny Family series. She also told us about her home life being an author and how things in her own life relate to her books. I recommend this book for all ages of children.

(Daisy, Year 4)

Oliver Fibbs

I really enjoyed reading Oliver Fibbs   because it is full of action and it is really hilarious .I like the illustrations as well because they’re quite simple and cartoony.  I recommend it to both children and adults. My favourite character is Oliver Fibbs because he is really mischievous, and despite getting into trouble he gets out of trouble easily.

It has been great taking part in the Library Challenge and getting to read all of the amazing books . I would like to take part in next years because I would like to read some more different books by authors I haven’t read.

(Kai, Year 4 Namibia class)

Here is a book review of a great book from the Surrey libraries children’s book award. It has been  a great honour to have been chosen to take part in this challenge.

CLAUDE

Claude was my favourite book because the illustrations showed the story really well. My favourite illustration is Miss Henrietta High-kick Spin. I thought that Sir Bobblysock was very neat and tidy but incredibly cute and funny! I loved the way that Claude was acting like a detective when he realized that the ghost was fake. I definitely recommend this book. Children of all ages will love it and maybe adults too.

(Rhianna, Year 4 Ghana class)

The No.1 Car Spotter and the Car Thieves

I really enjoyed the No.1 Car Spotter because I really liked  No.1s crazy plans and the way it gets you to think about real life problems. My favourite character is Grandpa because he really gets you to think about his sayings. I would recommend it to Yrs 4 and 5 and adults too.

I really enjoyed taking part in the Surrey Libraries Children’s Book Awards. It’s been a honour to take part this year. I really want to take part next year because I think it would be great fun.

(Ben, Yr 4 Ghana class)

My Funny Family Gets Bigger

                                        By Chris Higgins

                              Illustrated By Lee Wildish

It was a bit tricky to choose my favourite book for the Surrey Libraries’ Children’s Book Award but in the end I chose My Funny Family gets bigger. I like this book because, when Chris puts:

WORRY LIST!!!

it tells me that Mattie is worrying. I like the Illustrations by Lee Wildish too.

It was fun when Chris came into our school and she told us how her home life gets into her books.

This book is a humorous book and I can’t wait to read the rest of the series!!

(By Molly)

Author Chis Higgins visits St Bartholomew's School

Some of the shortlisted authors visited school children at the Book Award Champion schools earlier in March.

Here is Chris Higgins, author of My Funny Family Gets Bigger, during her visit to St Bartholomew's primary school. Chris also visited Loseley Fields and St. Matthew's primary schools.

It sounds like everyone enjoyed the visits, as Chris later said:

"Lovely day at Loseley Fields and at St Barts Primaries talking about My Funny Family @SurreyLibraries. Great questions!"

"Fab time at Loseley, St Barts and St Matts."

St John`s CofE Community School Years 3 and 4 Blog

YEAR 3`S WORK ON THE SURREY LIBRARIES CHILDRENS  BOOK AWARDS 2014

My name is Brijo and I am reading The Magical Peppers.
I am in Year 3. I like reading about all the magic tricks and our class even tried the` make the paper chain bigger` one.
I like Uncle Potty he thinks he is really good at magic but sometimes they don't always work out well. I have also tried some at home but they all went wrong.


I am  Kyla I am also in Year 3 Seal`s class. I love the Magical Peppers and The Great Vanishing Act because I love the characters acting out their magic tricks. Uncle Potty is my favourite character  as he seems really silly.


My Book Review of The Magical Peppers and The Great Vanishing Act by Ashley.

This book was so funny I almost fell out of bed laughing. If I was in the kitchen I would have smashed at least 2 glasses but lucky I wasn`t in the kitchen I was tucked up in bed. I almost knocked over my drink that was beside my bed. OOPS!! I give this book a  5 out of 5.


By Charlie aged 8 in Year 3.

I`m reading the book The magical Peppers and the Island of invention. This is my most favourite book yet. I love this book because it is written by Sian Pattenden and it contains so many tricks. I give this book 10 out of 10 stars.




In year 3 we designed new book covers and vote for me posters.

 

 

 
 

The day Sian Pattenden visited Year 4 at St John`s.





Year 4 reading some of the books in the competition.











Sian Pattenden doing a magic trick with Year 4 pupils.
 

Sian Pattenden helped us create our own special superhero.

Year 4 have drawn the book covers of their favourite stories and have written the following book reviews.

BOOK REVIEWS BY YEAR 4

The Magical Peppers.

This book is about two kids and an uncle named Potty. All of them are magicians. One day they get asked to show the Queen some magic. They had to make the crystal skull disappear. The kids names are Esme and Monty. I like this book because you never know what`s going to happen next.

By Daniel aged 9.

---------------------------------------------------

The Magical Peppers.

The Magical peppers is a very good book. The characters are Potty, Monty and Esme. Uncle Potty gets asked to perform a magic trick in front of the Queen and Potty is very scared. he started practising for the show and he loses the crystal skull. Potty gets arrested and Monty and Esme finds a tunnel.

My favourite character is potty because he is funny.

By Jessie aged 8.

------------------------------------------------------

My Funny Family Gets Bigger.

 

This book is about a 9 and half year old girl called Mattie who has a little brother called Stan. Stan loves reading because he is very good at it but his sister V is not, so she was very jealous of him and got so annoyed with Stan because of all his boasting. So the next day their Nan goes out with V and buys her some new glasses and a new book for her to read with her new glasses and she was very good. At the end of the story their Mum had a baby boy and they wanted to call him Jesus as he was born on Christmas day but in the end the they called him William.

My favourite character was V because she was funny.

I really liked this book because it explained how they looked and what they felt like.

By Rebecca aged 9

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Claude In The Spotlight.

 

This book is about when Claude and Sir Bobbly Sock wake up early one morning and start an adventure by going one morning and start an adventure by going to the theatre and performing with a group he met that day.

 

I like this book because Claude has a friend and its a sock, also he was really funny when he said "I need my beauty spot and I feel my hands coming on".

 

I don`t dislike anything about it because it`s fun when Claude does tap dancing.

 

The characters are Claude(the dog), Sir Bobbly sock( the socks), Mr and Mrs Shiny Shoes(the dogs owners), the children(that Claude met that day) and Miss Highkick Spin(the dance teacher).

 

By Lily aged 8

 

 

 

 

 

 



Sian Pattenden's visit to The Dawnay School

Last Thursday, Sian Pattenden paid a visit to Hedgehogs Class at The Dawnay School. She told us all about how she became a writer and introduced us to the Seven Steps to Story Success (there might have been eight but for the purposes of alliteration, we'll stick to seven).

She and the children then created, bit by bit, starting with his head and working our way down to his feet, our Superhero, with springs on his boots, VERY strong hair and a cape that may or may not lead him into trouble.

Sian then showed the children some magic tricks. She did not make anyone disappear, nor did she saw any children in half but Daniel did channel the magic force so enthusiastically we feared he might explode!

Happily, he didn't and Hedgehogs Class were very impressed with Sian's tricks.

We finished the session with the same number of children as when we started (which is always a good thing) and everyone was keen to write stories featuring the superhero they had created, who may have been called Captain Rubbish, or perhaps Fred.

So, all that is left to say is a big THANK YOU to Sian for a great session and to Surrey Libraries for arranging it all.

What Addlestone Chatterbookers thought of Oliver Fibbs and the Attack of the Alien Brain

Oliver Fibbs: The Attack of the Alien Brain

Review by Matthew Presland age 10

Oliver Tibbs is an ordinary boy with extraordinary ideas. He likes reading comics and they how he thinks. Now he thinks “What if…?”

Oliver tells his fantastic stories to the class in ‘show and tell’ and I like the way the author shows these stories in the form of comic strips. I found the book really fun to read and I found it hard to put down.

I think Oliver is a likeable character with a unique personality. In his stories the person he dislikes the most becomes the bad guy. Algy (Oliver’s little brother) is another great character. He is very intelligent but a little bit cheeky.

The only thinking that I dislike about this book is that there isn’t much happening outside Oliver’s stories.

In conclusion, I think this is an enjoyable book with funny stories and characters. I recommend the story for 7-9 year olds. I would give it 4 and a half stars out of 5.

 

Review by Billy Nuttall age 9

Oliver Tibbs, or nicknamed Oliver Fibbs, is an ordinary boy with an active imagination. Every week, Oliver’s class has show and tell. The problem is that Oliver never does anything exciting on the weekend. So prepare for the adventures of Dabman! My favourite character is Oliver Tibbs because his stories are always quite interesting. I like that the stories are in comic book form. I dislike that it only tells you about his school life and not the rest of his life. I would recommend this book for children aged between 7 and 10.

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars.

 

Well done to Matthew Presland who won February's book review of the month for his excellent Oliver Fibbs: Attack of the Alien Brain review.

Once we had read Oliver Fibbs we created our own comic strips just like Oliver does, take a look at them!

 

 



What Addlestone Chatterbookers thought of Claude in the Spotlight!

Claude in the Spotlight by Alex T. Smith

Review by Simone Finch age 8

The book I read was Claude in the Spotlight and was written by Alex T. Smith. My favourite character was Sir Bobblysock because of his personality.

I like the book because of the adventure. It is about a naughty man dressed as a ghost and trying to ruin the performances so that he could win the competition. My favourite part of the story was the end because it was so funny.

I would give this book 5 out of 5 stars.

Review by Esme Presland age 8
This is a story about a dog called Claude. He accidently joins a dance class and goes to a theatre.

I thought the story was written well and it had an interesting twist at the end. My favourite character was Claude because he is nice and he is willing to try new things. I like the end which was entertaining and the whole story made me want to keep reading.

There was nothing I did not like about the story because it was exciting and fun to read.

I recommend the story for 4-7 year olds. I give the book 5 out of 5 stars.

Review by Maya Finch age 10
This book is funny and good for young children and will probably inspire you to make a cute sock-puppet (you can see our attempts below!).

If you read this book you will have lots of giggles, not just by the words but the pictures too.

I would give this book 5 stars out of 5.

 

Each month a prize is given to the Chatterbooker who has written the best Review. Well done to Simone Finch who won March's prize for her review of Claude in the Spotlight.

In honour of Sir Bobblysock, a character in 'Claude in the Spotlight', our Chatterbookers each made a sock puppet. Here is a picture of us all with them.

What have we been doing at The Dawnay School?

Here at The Dawnay School, Hedgehogs Class have been reading The No 1 Car Spotter and the Car Thieves and The Magical Peppers and the Great Vanishing Act.

We are very much looking forward to a visit from Sian Pattenden and the children are busy practising their magic tricks, hoping to impress her!

Harvey has done a fantastic drawing of the car thieves being arrested.

This is the great plate spinning trick (I don't think they've practised this one in class yet)

Keira has drawn a great copy of the book's cover.

Instructions for some sleight of hand here, as well as the proverbial rabbit out of a hat.

Our Favourite Books

Here are some comments from library staff about the books in the award. Let us know what your favourite is.

"My favourite on the shortlist is 'Oliver Fibbs: Attack of the alien brain', because I really liked Oliver's imaginative story telling and how his class enjoyed it so much. Also the book was very funny, so funny I nearly fell out of bed laughing!" (Jenny)

 "My favourite book is 'The No. 1 Car Spotter and the Car Thieves'. I love this book for its thrilling fast paced story line as well its ability to conjure up colourful images of another country and its culture!" (Annabel)

"My favourite book is 'Claude in the Spotlight.' I love the illustrations, especially the expressions on Claude's face. But the main thing that I love about the book is Sir Bobblysock - he is such a nervous and anxious character, but still follows his friend Claude into his adventure!" (Carol)

"My favourite book in the award is 'The Magical Peppers and the Great Vanishing Act.' I really enjoyed the story and the magic tips in the book too. It's funny and, even though I didn't almost fall out of bed laughing (like Jenny), I'm sure I felt myself levitating at one point. Was that the power of Uncle Potty's magic?" (Gary)

" Out of all 5 of the short listed books my favourite was 'My Funny Family Gets Bigger.' I really got to like Mattie and her crazy but lovable family at Christmas time. Mattie's idea of giving her siblings a pet rock for Christmas was genius and naming it 'Petroc' was inspired!" (Amina)

Now it's your turn to tell us which one is your favourite and why you like it. We can't wait to see what you think too!